Queensland, youngest and second largest of the colonies included, after 1901, in the Australian Commonwealth (see AUSTRALIA), comprises an area of 668,497 sq. m., representing a country five and a half times the dimensions of the United Kingdom. It was little known until December 1823, when Surveyor-general Oxley, acting on information imparted by two castaway convicts, discovered the river which he named the Brisbane, in honour of the governor of the mother-colony of New South Wales. Queensland was proclaimed by imperial command a separate colony in 1859 under Sir George Ferguson Bowen as first governor. The coast-line is 2250 miles in extent. The southern boundary, beginning at Point Danger, generally follows the twenty-ninth parallel of south latitude. The northernmost point of the mainland is Cape York; but, since the annexation of the Torres Straits Islands, the limit may be reckoned from the parallel of 10°. Queensland is 1300 miles in length from north to south, and 800 miles at the greatest breadth. The width gradually lessens until, with Cape York peninsula, it assumes a pyramidal outline. Its western boundary for the most part is a straight line, marked by the 138th degree of longitude. Running more or less parallel with the eastern coast is a backbone of mountains, averaging a distance of 50 miles from the sea. Upon its intervening belt settlement has principally taken place. The Main Dividing Range is a continuation of the bolder Australian Alps of Victoria and the famous Blue Mountains of New South Wales. The highest peaks are Bellenden-Ker (5500 feet) and Mount Dalrymple (4250). The mean altitude of the range is 2000 feet. The east side is ridgy and thickly timbered with the eucalypti peculiar to the Antipodes. The country west of the mountains is to a large extent open downs and plains, often of the richest black soil, covered with the finest fattening herbage in the world.
Queensland is a fairly watered land. The largest rivers on the east coast are the Brisbane, Mary,
Burnett, Fitzroy, Burdekin, and Johnston. There is also a western watershed, including the rivers Mulligan, Herbert, and Diamantina. The headwaters of the Thomson and Barcoo flow southward through the boundless prairie-country. The rivers Flinders, Leichhardt, Gilbert, Mitchell, and Gregory flow northward to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The eastern rivers, affording communication from the interior, have assisted in the creation of important industries and thriving ports along the island-studded coast. Rockhampton is on the Fitzroy, Maryborough on the Mary, and Mackay on the Pioneer. The principal harbour in Queensland is Moreton Bay, and between it and Thursday Island there are numerous ports of growing importance. The alluvial coast-lands are devoted to ordinary and semi-tropical agriculture and timber produce. The basaltic plains and tablelands beyond the Main Range, extending to what is still known as the 'Never Never country,' are occupied by pioneer pastoralists with their herds of sheep and cattle.
In such a colony, two-thirds of which lies within the tropics, there is a wide variety of climate and natural capabilities. The summer heat is undoubtedly great; but there is immunity from the hot winds which prevail in the other portions of Australia. The heat being dry, although the maximum register is 108° (the winter minimum being 34°), the exhilarating quality of the atmosphere is such that the hottest weather is not unbearable. For seven months of the year the climate is most enjoyable, and not inaptly compared with that of Madeira. At midsummer (Christmas time) the rainy season commences in the tropical portion, and extends more or less until March. The colony enjoys a high repute for health, gives a low death and a high birth rate, and is free from the scourges of pulmonary and contagious diseases. Invalids sent from the old country in what appear to be the last stages of consumption often regain health in Queensland, and live to become old inhabitants. The population at the 1891 census was 393,938, consisting of 223,781 males and 170,157 females. Free and assisted emigration is one of the features of government policy; and some idea of the rapid growth of Queensland may be formed from the fact that Brisbane, which in 1881 had a population of 30,955, ten years later numbered 75,000 within its five-mile radius. There are some 22,000 aborigines, mostly in the unsettled country. The revenue to June 1890 was £3,211,795; expenditure, £3,695,774; only in one of the preceding four years did the revenue exceed the expenditure. In 1890 the public debt amounted to £28,105,684—nearly £70 a head. A table of the population, revenue, comparative crops, exports, &c. of Queensland and the other Australian colonies will be found in the article AUSTRALIA.
Much of the marked prosperity of Queensland is due to the development of ocean and intercolonial steam communication. The British India Steam Navigation Company has a direct line between London and Brisbane, carrying monthly mails and despatching intermediate boats; and there is a regular coastal service to the other colonies. The dangerous Barrier Reef making it imperative for the government, from its earliest establishment, to construct harbours and improve the rivers, the coast of Queensland is now one of the best lighted in Australia. The navigable streams have been dredged at enormous cost, and the largest ocean steamships can now ascend the Brisbane River to discharge cargo at the city wharves. The postal system is worked by 834 post-offices, with a twopenny postage on inland letters and a penny for the towns. The railway system was rapidly extended in 1880-90; up to 1896, 2430 miles had been opened for traffic, and other lines were projected or in course of construction. The total expenditure on railways to the middle of June 1890 was 15½ millions sterling. The government maintains a well-equipped series of workshops at Ipswich, one of the oldest towns, on the Bremer River, 25 miles from Brisbane. The railway system of Queensland is now directly connected with that of New South Wales. The telegraphic service, like the railways and the post-office, is under state control; the length of telegraph line is 9456 miles, and, since the opening of the South Australian Overland Line, Queensland is in telegraphic communication with the whole civilised world.
Queensland possesses a wealth of gold and other mineral resources; and machinery has reduced gold-mining to a settled and scientific industry. After the disastrous gold 'rushes' of the early days the miners profited by experience. But the real era of paying gold mining in Queensland did not begin until 1868. From that date to the end of 1896 its mines produced 11,198,190 ounces of gold, value £39,196,145. In 1889 the yield was 739,103 ounces; in 1890 it had decreased. In central Queensland is to be found the remarkable Mount Morgan (q.v.) mine. It is supposed that this unique formation, 1225 feet above the sea-level, was once a hot spring, the water of which held in solution gold which was precipitated and consolidated with other mineral matter into the curious ferruginous stone which, contrary to the previous theories of geologist and miner, has proved the most wonderful gold-bearing material in the world. Its fine and pure gold is worth four guineas an ounce, and the gross annual output has been estimated at 1½ million pounds sterling. The principal gold-fields in northern Queensland are Charters Towers, Ravenswood, Etheridge, Gilberton, and Palmer. A recently discovered gold-field is the Croydon, on the edge of the alluvial flat extending to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Palmer is the most extensive alluvial field in the colony. Copper, tin, silver and lead, quicksilver, manganese, and iron are found in Queensland; and there are valuable coal-mines. Opals of great brilliancy and variety of colour have been found in a few localities, and specimens of the diamond, ruby, sapphire, and topaz near Stanthorpe. Agates exist in quantity.
The wool of Queensland, clipped from the merino and coarse-woolled sheep, still maintains its high character. The number of sheep in the colony in 1890 was 14,470,095; cattle, 4,872,416; and horses, 352,364. The annual exports of wool, hides, skins, and tallow represent a total value of 4½ millions. The manufactories of Queensland comprise metal-foundries, sugar-mills, tanneries, flour-mills, distilleries, saw-mills. Tweed-factories are worked in the neighbourhood of Ipswich. Of late years the bêche-de-mer and pearl fisheries of Torres Straits have been highly productive; and preserved meats have also become an established industry.
The seat of government is Brisbane, and the principal provincial towns are Rockhampton, Ipswich, Townsville, Cooktown, Maryborough, Gympie, Gladstone, Toowoomba (capital of the Darling Downs), Dalby, Roma, and Bowen. The government is vested in a governor appointed by the crown, an executive council, and two houses of parliament. The upper house or Legislative Council consists of thirty-nine life members, named by the governor, and sitting under a president elected by themselves; and the Legislative Assembly numbers seventy-two members, elected on a franchise that is virtually manhood suffrage. State aid to religion was abolished by one of the first acts of parliament. The educational system is free, secular, and compulsory, and the annual expenditure is—primary state schools, £208,747; grammar and university education, £1241; technical education, £3816. The defence of the colony was provided by act of parliament in 1884. A small permanent force, a defence contingent (whose members are paid for each day's drill), and volunteers make up an enrolment nearly 5000 strong; but every male between eighteen and sixty years old is liable for military service in an emergency. The entrance to the Brisbane River (twelve miles from the capital) is defended by a battery and torpedo works, and there are two gunboats, torpedo and packet boats, and a naval reserve.
About 418½ million acres of land still belong to the crown, the greater part leased to squatters as sheep and cattle runs. The object of the recent governments of Queensland being to foster agricultural settlement and closer pastoral occupation, the tendency now is to leasing rather than selling and to prevent the aggregation of large estates.
Market-gardening in Queensland, even in the large towns, is principally done by Chinamen, who have the special gift of patience for the work. On the Darling Downs, which is the garden of Queensland, wheat may be grown; and oats, barley, and rye are cultivated for fodder. Maize and lucerne are the crops most commonly grown by farmers. European vegetables and fruits, turnips, mangolds, and potatoes are raised on the Darling Downs, but the vegetables which are the staple of the bush garden elsewhere are sweet potatoes, yams, and pumpkins. The growth and propagation of arrowroot is a most profitable industry. Tobacco thrives well. Cotton, rice, coffee, and even tea have been proved to be suitable for Queensland. Grapes, peaches, pine-apples, bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, mangoes, passion-fruit, and guavas bear profusely, and north of Capricorn all the fruit trees and spices of tropical value might be cultivated with profit but for the scarcity of labour. Ginger, pepper, and nutmeg are indigenous. The beautiful collection of timbers shown at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London emphasised the value of the forests of Queensland. Amongst the hardwoods are the ironbarks, stringy-barks, gnms, and bloodwoods. There are several varieties of turpentine, and the easily-worked softwoods include four excellent pine-trees, while the red cedar, yellow-wood, silky oak, tulip-wood, and beech are prized for cabinet and ornamental purposes.
The wild animals of Queensland are neither numerous nor dangerous, always excepting the worst varieties of the snake. Alligators are numerous and destructive in the rivers of tropical Queensland. The fauna includes the usual Australian marsupials—the platypus, dingo, flying-fox, &c. Many of the birds are of gorgeous plumage. The emu roams the plains, and the cassowary is a rare appearance in the north. The rabbit has, so far, been fenced out from the southern borders with tolerable success; but this imported pest is an object of dread in Queensland, which suffered so severely, before the legislature assisted in their suppression, from the plague of kangaroos. The sea-fishing is unsurpassed, and the Moreton Bay oysters are exported in quantities to the sister colonies. From the Dugong (q.v.), besides the oil, is obtained a hide invaluable for thick machinery belting.
Queensland, in common with other Australian colonies, suffers occasionally from floods and droughts; but the necessity for artificial irrigation is now generally recognised as an essential protection for development in the future. The sugar industry, which had somewhat declined in value, in 1898-99 showed an increase of 50 per cent. on the previous year. Owing to the rigorous laws